Games Animals play!

Do animals play? Naturalists do not agree with this point. The disagreement is mainly due to the fact that there is no agreement on how to define the game. Anti-animal game theorists tend to see what we call game as a hunting method. . But when I look at Nefer (it's my cat's name) I have a hard time believing that she also thinks that you grab, grab and hold rubber bands seriously. At the age of ten, it can hardly be called "practicing a later adult activity." Upon request, Nefer can track down an unwanted rodent. This is a serious matter. Rubber band? They are only used in your spare time.

These are animals that normally seduce us humans, eat our delicacies, sleep on or under our furniture and perhaps encourage us to play.

Patio capers

How about animals that are a little further away from the human environment? We go to the barn to see a creature far from normal human contact. Few people are blind to pigs, so few lean over pencils to see their ideas. Random circumstances brought a pig into the family of some of my friends in Indiana. In the following months, they learned that pigs play! My friends called her "Priscilla". This Priscilla (nicknamed Pig) would do most of what a cat would do. But their compact body and lack of flexibility in cats made them cat maneuvers something completely different. Cats can run, roll and chase their tails. But imagine, if you can, the same activity as a small animal with rubber skin, with a small barrel-shaped body on short, stiff legs! Pigs also love to scratch their backs. Priscilla would present any human foot that hung in a leg crossed at the knee. When she was rejected, she trained her breathing so that pigs were considered masks. He kicked his feet and screamed in frustration and anger.

Many animal behavior experts are reluctant to attribute emotions such as "frustration" and "anger" to animals. It should be noted, however, that although the well-known naturalist Jacques Cousteau warns that the human characteristics of animals are attributed, “We must not discredit animals by denying them any expression.

Playful kittens in nature

Do we find the playful qualities so common in young people living close to humanity, even in young wild animals? We left the farm and traveled to the African steppe to reflect on this issue. Here we find a lioness lying on the grass with cubs around her and her tail latactivated. For a child, it is no longer the mother's final band when the tail is in motion. Obviously he will be a monster to be controlled. Look at this child whose pupils are dilated and whose eyes sparkle with intimate thoughts. He crouched down and shook his hips as if the stern was facing forward. Perhaps. Then ATTACK! He could! Your sister may be wrong, and now she did! They fall, hissing and meowing in a whirlwind of bones and bodies.

Games played by others

Durrell again recounts how he once observed a pair of foxes in the immediate vicinity of his camp, playing with a roll of light pink toilet paper. “After proving it was inedible,” he said, “they danced and twisted on their tight legs and threw the toilet paper roll back and forth ... When the show was over One hundred and twenty yards of pink toilet paper swayed in the wind!

The otter lives in the northern forest. It is a creature that most natural scientists agree with. Play for joy! When you hear a swoosh! followed by a splash and repeated over and over again, you're probably ready for the best animal display you can see. The panting comes from the otter sliding off a clay she had built, from which she carefully removed each stone and moistened it with fur to make it slippery. The splash hits the end of the slide when you catapult yourself into the lake or river. He never seems tired of the rehearsal. In winter, you can find it with a seasonal slide, snow, for the same thrill.

The playful behavior of all classes of vertebrate animals except fish has been recorded.However, I saw flying fish compete with a liner in the Pacific Ocean, and saw giant blue marlins in Florida come out of the ocean and appear to be on the waves for a few seconds before falling back. When it's done by a fish that's not trying to ease the pain, it looks fun! Mr. Scheffer speaks of "playing dolphins" (presumably boys), "blowing in the calm sea and scattering a million jewels behind them". If the creature likes it, even if it's a fish, isn't that your version of the game?

Australian parakeets disguised as parrots or lovebirds in other parts of the world provide a similar example of bird play. Haven't you seen them in captivity glide along the wire of the cage like a firefighter descending from a pole?

Let’s see that we have seen creatures in our homes, in the yard, in the countryside, in the sea, in the forest and in the air. And in the jungle?

A mother chimpanzee tickles her baby in the jungle. It will go around in circles and it will bring it into play. And so the game between animals is not only in a group of friends. As with humans, older people love young people and often encourage play.

What is the game As mentioned earlier, not everyone agrees. A consensus would suggest that this is an activity for which no immediate practical goal is in sight. It may contain features that are used for convenience at other times (like crouching or chasing), but it does not contain all of the actions required in the job. Of course, it must contain the element of fun: fun! As mentioned in Mechanisms of Animal Behavior, as young, cats, foxes, and mongooses hunt inappropriate objects: a leaf, a thread, something that in itself is not a threat. They approach then jump vertically in the air.